Shigella dysenteriae60R strain adheres to and invades tissue culture cells in the absence of virulence plasmid

Adhesion and invasion of a mutant Shigella flexneri to an eukaryotic cell line in absence of the 220-kb virulence plasmid

A Shigella flexneri strain, cured of the large 220-kb virulence plasmid, expresses adhering and invading ability in confluent monolayers of HeLa cells similar to its parent strain. Invasion by both the parent and the cured strains resulted in alteration of the monomeric actin (G) in the total actin pool of HeLa cells. Other indicators of invasive characteristics of virulent Shigella strains such as production of keratoconjunctivitis in guinea pig eye in vivo, Congo red binding and expression of contact hemolysin however, indicated loss of invasive properties in the plasmid cured strain. Further, pretreatment of bacterial cells with para-bromophenacyl bromide (p-BPB), a specific chemical inhibitor of phospholipase A, adversely affected adhesion to and invasion of HeLa cells in vitro, irrespective of the presence of the 220-kb plasmid indicating the possible involvement of the enzyme phospholipase A in the invasion process. Adherence of both the strains to guinea pig colonic epithelial cells (CECs) in vitro was reduced significantly on pretreatment of bacteria or CECs with p-BPB. Expression of exocellular enzymes viz. protease, elastase, phospholipase A and phospholipase C were not related to the large plasmid.

Nucleotide sequence and transcriptional regulation of a positive regulatory gene of Shigella dysenteriae

A 1,937 bp PstI-HindIII fragment containing the ipaR locus was cloned from the large invasion plasmid of Shigella dysenteriae CG097, and its nucleotide sequence was completely determined. The IpaR protein (35 kDa, calculated from the DNA sequence) was synthesized in Escherichia coli chi 1411 minicells containing the 1,937-bp PstI-HindIII fragment. To determine the regulatory role of ipaR for ipa genes, we applied genetic complementation experiments using chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) as reporter. Analyses of CAT activity of the recombinant plasmids containing the 5' flanking sequences of the 24-kDa-protein gene and the ippI, ipaB, ipaC, and ipaD genes defined strong promoters upstream of the 24-kDa-protein gene and ipaD gene, weak promoters upstream of the ippI and ipaB genes, and the absence of any promoter activity for the ipaC gene. Complementation analyses showed that the CAT activity only under direction of the ippI promoter region increased 1.8-fold in the presence of IpaR protein. On the basis of our data, we suggest that an operon comprising ippI, ipaB, and ipaC is positively regulated by IpaR protein which has a trans effect on a DNA sequence upstream of the ippI promoter.